She wiped at her eyes. “Well, I’m glad you helped, too. And my son certainly will be.” She reached out and squeezed Seth’s arm. “Because of you, he still has a mother.”
His face went warm, along with the spot on his arm where she touched him. Thoughts zinged through his brain. She had a son? Was she married…? No, no, she’d been at the church singles event… Single mom, then. Okay.
He shook his head slightly, regretting it instantly when the horses started stampeding again. He sucked in a large breath, trying to focus around the pain. “Again, I’m happy I could help,” he stated.
Just then, Lily came out of the ladies’ room to Seth’s right. She, too, had slipped on a sweatshirt, but she looked as bedraggled as Kim. Her long blond hair was stringy, and her legs had sand all over them.
As she walked over, she nodded knowingly, looking at Kim. “See? What did I tell you?” She gestured to Seth. “He’s okay.”
Kim smiled, revealing sparkling white teeth and cute little crinkles around her eyes. Wow, she was pretty. Even when she was as pale as a ghost and fresh from a near-drowning.
Seth’s knees went weak. From her smile and pretty face? Nah. He was just injured, right?
“That’s a relief,” Kim said. “The Lord was watching over all of us today, wasn’t He?”
Seth didn’t quite know what to say to that, seeing as how he and God weren’t that close. He may have prayed for help earlier, but he knew crises made people do weird stuff—even pray to a God who had never answered any prayers in the past.
But he did know that he needed to get home. ASAP. His eyes felt as if they were going to pop right out of him. And the horses had turned into elephants.
Drew came hurrying back into the E.R. waiting room. He put his hand on Seth’s shoulder and spoke up. “You don’t look so good, dude. We should go. My rig’s waiting.”
Just then, Drew’s pager went off. He looked down at it, scowling. “Sorry. It’s the fire department.” Drew had been part of Moonlight Cove’s local volunteer fire brigade for years. He pulled out his cell. “I’ll call and see what they need. You gonna be okay for another minute?”
Seth nodded, then flinched. “No problem.” He needed to man up and sit tight.
His legs shaky, Seth found the nearest chair, resisting the urge to drop his head into his hands and groan. Kim and Lily followed and sat down, one on either side of him.
Even though he felt like he’d been run over by a truck, he wanted to know more about Kim. Odd, but there you had it. “So, I take it you’re new in town,” he said. Wow. Nice line. Really suave. And why did he care about his suaveness, anyway?
“How did you know?” Kim asked.
Lily piped in. “Moonlight Cove isn’t that big a place, and Seth was born and raised here, like me.” She smiled. “We were neighbors growing up.”
He wanted to nod, but caught himself in time. “I… we know just about everyone who lives here.”
“Then you probably know my aunt, Rose Latham,” Kim said.
Ah-hah. “Yes, I do. Lovely lady. Rose is one of the nicest women I’ve ever met.”
“My son, Dylan, and I are living with her.”
“Now that you mention it, I do remember hearing that Rose’s niece had moved in with her.”
Kim raised her eyebrows. “Where did you hear that?”
He kicked up his mouth into a bemused half smile. “Moonlight Cove has a thriving grapevine, which I can’t get away from because of my business,” he told her. “Occupational hazard.”
“Your business?” Kim asked.
“I own The Sports Shack, on Main Street.”
“Hmm. I’ve never thought about a sports store being gossip central,” Kim said.
“The Sports Shack is the only sporting goods store in town, and everybody shops there.” He snorted under his breath. “Old guys are worse than any quilting circle. They have to have something to talk about when they aren’t trading fishing stories.” Seth avoided all the idle chatter and socializing as much as he could, preferring to spend most of his time in his office handling the business end of things while his mom handled the customer contact.
Kim gave him a lopsided smile, dimples flashing, and pushed her hair back behind her ear. “News travels fast around here, then?”
He stared for a moment, again struck by her fresh prettiness. Even though he was hurting, he couldn’t help but smile back. “You have no idea.”
Living here definitely had its downside for a guy like Seth—the downside being all kinds of small-town relationship drama. Drama that had also, unfortunately, been part and parcel of his childhood; his mom and dad had fought all the time. And still did.
And Diana? He’d been in love with her his senior year in college, and she’d told him she loved him, too. But the day after he’d gone engagement-ring shopping, she’d dumped Seth for his best friend. Now, there was a black hold of turmoil if he’d ever seen one. He never wanted to go to that painful place again.
Still, it had seemed like a no-brainer to come back to town and take over his dad’s store when Seth had suffered a career-ending knee injury three years ago and Dad had been looking toward retirement.
Seth loved all sports and had a degree in marketing from Washington State, so it made sense to return and run The Sports Shack. Besides, his dad had built the business from scratch, and Seth and his brothers, Curt and Ian, had grown up working in the store. It hadn’t seemed right to sell the place to a stranger when his dad had wanted out.
The clincher had been when his parents had announced they were divorcing. Though the split had been a long time coming, his mom had needed support when she’d finally decided to go through with the divorce, and had really needed Seth around. She still did, so he stayed. She wasn’t good at coping on her own.
Seth sat in silence for a few moments, and despite his best efforts to curb his compelling curiosity about Kim, he wondered what her story was. She was single, but had a son. What had happened to the boy’s father?
It seemed tactless to ask; they barely knew each other. But he was intrigued by Kim. Very intrigued.
Maybe too intrigued.
Drew hurried back, his face grim. “There’s a fire out on Old Mill Road, and I’m one of the only volunteers available. Unfortunately, I have to go.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Seth said. “I’ll just call my mom and she’ll come get me.”
“Didn’t you tell me that your mom went to Seattle this weekend?” Drew asked.
Seth mentally slapped his head, and even that hurt. “Yeah, I forgot. Maybe Curt can come get me.” Granted, his eldest brother was at work and he and Seth weren’t close, but hopefully he could leave early. Ian, the baby of the family, lived in California.
“We can take you home,” Kim said. She belatedly looked at Lily. “Can’t we?”
“Of course.”
Seth chewed on her offer, noting Kim’s pale skin and generally exhausted look. No. No way. “I can’t impose like that,” he told her. “Besides, you’ve got to be beat after what happened.”
She put up a hand to stop his protest. “You wouldn’t be imposing, trust me. You saved my life. It’s the least I can do.”
Seth hated asking anything of Kim. Or Lily. Or anyone, really. He was usually the one taking care of people, at least in his family. But Drew needed to get going, and Seth didn’t want to hold him up. So